Debate contribution: Community-based Restorative Justice
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 24 June 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Community-based Restorative Justice
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5046841
Read the official Assembly record
Text
As the Member will be aware, restorative justice is something that I feel passionately about. As I said yesterday, one of the purposes of sentencing is to ensure that reparations are made to the community and people are forced to confront the impact of the harm that they cause as they offend. Part of that can be done through restorative practice. We are doing quite a bit of work in the restorative space in setting up for accreditation groups and individuals who can operate at different tiers, whether that is at the community level of restorative practice to defuse community tensions or at the highest specialisation level of restorative practice in serious crimes such as murder and rape. Those are much more complex and require practitioners who are much more skilled, educated and experienced, but it is something that we are passionate about moving forward with.
146 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.67).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.67 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.89 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.06 |
| Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism | 0.04 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:53 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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